Avoiding the outside

[pepperminttwizzlers]

Hi....just wondering if I’m totally alone feeling like this.....I want to walk 3blocks to get a latte but I just can’t do it cause I feel coffee lid/cup is contaminated & I want to sit outside to drink & try to relax but feel table is contaminated. Going out causes me so much anxiety more now since “situation”. I’m so isolated & not going anywhere. I feel if I bring coffee home it’s not worth going thru all the stress but I just feel so trapped being home & don’t know how to handle...feel like I can’t win cause world feels contaminated...

[MothFir]

I don't think you're alone; lots of people are feeling that way.

I think you first need to rationally decide what are reasonable precautions and what is OCD. Consider whether your community is having an outbreak at the moment, whether you're a high-risk person, and whether you're going to practice the basic precautions we all know by now (mask, handwashing, distancing). If other (reasonable) people in your area are going out safely, and the only thing stopping you is "What ifs" from OCD, you should work on overcoming the irrational anxiety OCD is causing.

You will still feel uncomfortable going out, but if you are in reality taking reasonable precautions, you can label that discomfort as irrelevant and proceed the best you can. The more you habituate to the feelings of anxiety, the less power they will have over you and your decision-making.

Of course, it's "safer" to stay home, but it sounds like you're getting pretty sick of that. Keep in mind that OCD will always want you to take the absolute "safest" option regarding your topic of worry, while in other areas of life (not affected by OCD) you probably do not take the "safest" option. It would probably be safer to blend all your food into a paste, for example, so you do not become one of the roughly 5,000 people who choke to death on food in the US every year. Also don't ever take the stairs, because falling down them killed over 2,000 people in 2018 alone. And watch out if you have a dog, because dogs killed over 30 people that same year.

To be clear, I take COVID seriously and am frustrated by the number of people who don't (thus prolonging our current situation). But fortunately my OCD has not latched on to it, and my family and I are trying to do what we can to stay sane while also keeping ourselves and others physically safe. You'll have to decide for yourself how much risk you can accept -- just don't let OCD do it for you.

[Karalin in reply to MothFir]

Wow those are things I did not think about until now.

[Karalin]

You aren’t alone. It’s hard for me to walk outside because of the compulsions. So I’m kinda just staying home to avoid the unnecessary level of uncomforotability and annoyingness.

[DeathtoOCD]

I'll say I don't really want to go out either so yeah...I think a lot of people don't OCD or not.